Thank you, Henna. Good afternoon, everyone.

The European Union has always been a peace project.

This has not changed and will not change.

What has changed is the context in which we find ourselves .

Today, our Union is not at war.

However, with a high-intensity war raging on our borders and Russias persistent threats and aggressive posture, we are no longer at peace, either.

According to several EU Member States intelligence services, the capacity of Russias war machine to produce military equipment has increased tremendously in recent years.

As a result, Russia would have the military capabilities to launch an attack against EU or NATO Member States within the next three to five years.

We are not trying to be alarmist.

We simply need to act based on how the world is and not how we would like it to be.

So we must now respond to the threats we are facing with the utmost urgency.

What does this mean, in practice?

We all know that weakness encourages aggression, while strength deters it.

Therefore, we need to ramp up efforts to re-establish Europes defensive capabilities by 2030 to provide a credible deterrence to Russian aggression.

To get there, we must boost the capacity and readiness of the European defence industry.

This will require massive and sustained investment, and strong cooperation with our allies.

The good news is that we have already taken decisive steps to facilitate this investment.

The Commissions ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030 initiative will help to mobilise an unprecedent volume of resources: up to €800 billion for additional defence spending over the next four years.

But investing alone is not enough.

Our challenge is not simply to spend more, but also to get more for what we do spend.

This brings me to todays proposals.

The Defence Readiness Omnibus seeks to ensure that our rules and regulations support – and do not hinder – these investments.

This is precisely where the Commissions “implementation and simplification agenda” can help - by making our rules simpler and faster. 

In other words, todays defence proposals can help to unleash the potential of the European Unions greatest achievement – the Single Market - for the benefit of the European defence industry and for overall deterrence. 

An EU-wide defence market is the most effective way for Member States to re-stock their arsenals and build up their readiness.

This means, however, that EU countries will need to overcome centuries of military history and tradition wherein enhancing defences was never a cooperative effort.

The old saying that “United we stand, divided we fall”, is now more relevant than ever.

As with all our simplification proposals, we have engaged closely with key stakeholders - the defence industry, national authorities, defence experts and others - to address the challenges they face.

Todays proposals are ambitious and comprehensive.

They focus on:

• addressing key bottlenecks that hinder the production of defence equipment,
• clarifying legal ambiguities,
• and streamlining processes to eliminate unnecessary administrative hurdles and reduce costs.

They primarily address defence regulations and programmes.

But they also consider how other EU rules can be improved to facilitate investments in defence, access to key inputs, such as chemicals, and creation of European supply chains.

Commissioner Kubilius will present todays proposals in greater detail, but let me give three examples of major simplification in action.

Firstly, we propose to considerably fast-track permitting processes for the defence industry, including the creation of a single point of contact at national level.

The deadline for reviewing the permitting requests will be 60 days.

And the absence of any response from national authorities will be taken to mean that the relevant permit has been granted.

Second, we are simplifying defence procurement rules to maximise efficiencies and reduce administrative burdens and costs.

For example:

We are facilitating the procurement of innovative solutions that will contribute to the transformation of defence through disruptive innovation and technologies.

This is crucial given the fundamentally changing nature of warfare, which we see every day in Ukraine. 

We are also increasing the thresholds of applicability of the procurement rules to €900,000 for supply and service contracts.

And we are proposing to extend the duration of framework agreements from 7 to 10 years and open them to other EU Member States.

My third example relates to making sure that our defence companies have easy access to private capital.

Today, we are issuing a Guidance Notice to financial institutions and the defence sector clarifying, once again, that the Unions sustainable finance framework does not impose limitations on the financing of the defence sector.

The Commission also clarifies that only weapons prohibited by the international arms conventions, to which the majority of Member States are party, should be excluded from certain sustainable investment indices under the Benchmark Regulation.

To conclude, todays proposals are part of our broader efforts to make Europe regulatory regime simpler and faster, and to enhance the competitiveness of our economies.

I am confident that the massive investment in defence industry will create positive spill-over effects for our entire economy.

The military applications, for example, Artificial Intelligence, cloud and quantum computing and other technologies will ultimately find their way into civil usage, boosting Europes future competitiveness.

I will now handover to Andrius to present further details.

Thank you.